Well, it was the Ride of the Falling Leaves today.  My very first sportive event, taking in around 120km of countryside on the outskirts of London.  It was a bit of a step up from the annual treks around the Island I do each year, both in the quality of the other riders and the distance covered.  As if to add a little to the mix the heavens decided to open and unleash rain upon us for the entire duration of the ride.

As you can perhaps imagine from the title there were quite a few fallen leaves littering the roads, which led to some rather hairy moments zipping down country lanes surely not wide enough to fit a cyclist and an onrushing vehicle should one decide to bear down upon us.  Nevertheless I believe everyone managed to navigate the course safely so no harm was done.

The ride itself was tougher than expected with a reasonable number of nice climbs.  I managed to tag along with a fellow IT nerd called Ian for the first half of the ride before the lack of miles in my legs told and he dropped me on a particularly harsh set of climbs.  At least they felt harsh as I struggled up them (pic below for visual evidence of my malaise).

Anyway, the ride was completed in round about 4hr 30 mins so I was quite pleased with that.  Shall have to endeavour to get some more miles in the legs over the winter to ensure it isn’t quite so painful next year.